Lagos State Government on Monday urged the National Emergency Management Agency to respect the laid down emergency response structure in the state and abide by it.
General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, said this at Alausa, Ikeja, explaining that emergency structure was a food chain that moved from the primary, secondary to the tertiary level.
Oke-Osanyintolu said, "NEMA is a Federal Government agency and because it is an agency of the central government, it is a second responder to disaster cases in the states. And it is expected to be called to a disaster scene by LASEMA, who is the first responder."
The LASEMA boss lamented that NEMA had continued to maintain its status of being the secondary responder in the state.
He added, "It is when we are overwhelmed that we can call NEMA, who is our secondary responder.
"For instance, in a state where emergency management agency is absent, NEMA can function as both the primary and secondary responder. But the case is different in Lagos, because we have LASEMA, which responds to emergency cases in the state."
Oke-Osanyintolu said rather than going to disaster sites, NEMA should first call LASEMA when it was alerted or discovered any disaster. He explained that such would boost efective management of disaster in the state.
He said, "Both agencies are working towards achieving a single goal which is responding to disaster. But there is need for us all to know who should be the first and the second responder to disaster cases. And this doesn't stop the relationship between both agencies. We have been sharing information with the federal agency and we have been building capacity together."
The Punch
Of course no one needs to tell them all that before they know it is the truth. That is how it should be in the first place.